New arrangements and relationships among and between elements of the erstwhile Bell System that took effect on Jan. 1, 1984, will have ramifications to the end of the century at least. AT&T's defense against the breakup had gone on for so long that lawyers involved in the case were thought to have lifetime assignments. The case history will provide decades' worth of fodder for business schools...
View full abstract»

Six experts were invited to provide overviews of fundamental areas of electrotechnology for this annual state-of-the-art review. In addition, inputs for the other Erticles were obtained from some 75 contributors; many of the contributions were solicited from !eaders within the IEEE's technical societies by issue coordinator Ronald Jurgen. All the specialists were asked to focus on near-term develo...
View full abstract»

In this introduction to the annual survey of the technology, six experts look at 1984's developments in computers, software, communications, solid state, instrumentation, and power and energy.
View full abstract»

As the software area continues to evolve rapidly, one thing is clear: computer programs are not what they used to be. Initially software was designed for standard repetitive problems such as the processing and issuing of insurance policies. Now, however, software increasingly deals with adaptive problem solving through interaction with a professional or other specialist. This interactive handling ...
View full abstract»

In the wake of the Bell System divestiture, Bell's operating companies, AT&T Long Lines, and the product offerings of the former system have gone their separate ways. The effects of the divestiture on technological innovation are not yet known, but the divestiture was the big communications event of 1984.
View full abstract»

The rapid evolution of silicon technology has already created two revolutions and more lie ahead. This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the introduction of Fairchild's RTL family, which were the first integrated circuits to have all circuit elements defined photolithographically on the same chip. About 1970, integrated circuits evolved into the system on a chip. What's to come?
View full abstract»

Electronics is at a watershed in terms of both useful performance and impact upon society. As a consequence, the design process for electronic products is undergoing substantial revision. This revision is exciting, even awesome, in its implication for productivity. And the implications for test instrumentation ¿ in terms of quality of product design, merged synthesis-analysis requirement, and reli...
View full abstract»

Electric utilities are faced with two major interrelated problems: How much additional power will be needed between now and the turn of the century? And how will it be generated? Nearly all other problems can be considered subsets of these two issues.
View full abstract»

The continuing trend in 1984 toward bigger, faster, and more powerful minis and mainframes is examined. It is noted that the advances in superminis have generally been typified not by major breakthroughs, but rather by designs that push existing technology to its limits. Such designs have capitalized on packaging advances, along with denser integrated circuits, to let computer designers cram more ...
View full abstract»

Software developments in the personal computer area during 1984 are examined, as are innovations in computer architectures and display hardware and the introduction of 16- and 32-bit microprocessor-based personal computers. The application software introduced last year for personal computers was more complex than earlier software, moving closer to achieving the power of minicomputer software. Mult...
View full abstract»

Software developments in 1984 are reviewed. These include: the entry of major mainframe and minicomputer manufacturers into the mainframe field; the US Department of Defense's conversion to Ada; the standardization of LISP; the development of knowledge-based tools; and the continuing development of logic programming systems.
View full abstract»

Microprocessor developments during 1984 are reviewed. These include: implementation in CMOS, integration of support functions such as cache memory and memory management on the chip, and execution of instructions at a rate well over 1 million per second for 32-bit microprocessors; applications of high-performance microprocessors to workstations; and the proliferation of UNIX.
View full abstract»

Developments in communications during 1984 are reviewed. These include the AT&amp;T divestiture; further advances in fiber optics, both in the field and in the laboratory; and progress toward a complete definition of universal digital-communications standards for local area networks. In addition, cellular mobile radio went into commercial operation in nearly two dozen cities in the US.
View full abstract»

Developments in microelectronics during 1984 are reviewed. These include: mixing power and logic on the same chip; progress in wafer-scale integration; new packages that improve on DIPs; and fast design turnaround springing from the availability of relatively inexpensive silicon compilers for commercial IC design.
View full abstract»